Brighton's best...
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The Bravery...
review Just who are support act the Five O’Clock Heroes? Just another of those New York/London-based outfits that seem to have multiplied since The Strokes made it acceptable to plunder the New Wave era and wear ripped denim on stage? Well, mostly. I’m not convinced they’ve managed to crack how to make the simplicity of drum, bass and guitar interesting. At times they do sound exactly how bands are supposed to sound at the moment – jagged guitars, yelped vocals and that recently exhumed Gang of Four influence - but it’s not a bad start.Yet another New York band, The Bravery were tipped for the top in a recent BBC poll that placed them above current media darlings Bloc Party in the race for success in 2005. And this has been based on a smattering of gigs and the release of the rather marvellous ‘Unconditional' EP, which revealed trappings of power pop redolent of The Cure, U2 and Duran Duran. Or in today’s currency: The Killers and Interpol. Combining power chords with a synthesized sound, The Bravery naturally exude a great image, swagger and confidence. Right from the off they show they mean business. As the band strike up the first few bars of the easily identifiable ‘Unconditional’, frontman Sam Endicott is nowhere to be seen. Making the audience wait for his initial appearance he bounds onto the stage, back to the crowd until the first line has to be sung, whereupon he grabs the mic-stand, deftly wraps his legs around it and with a smouldering look cries: “I’ve spent my whole life surrounded". I’ll bet he has, the handsome devil. From a less confident band, this would look like nothing less than hoary old rock cliché revisited. But he gets away with it, as if he’s been doing this for years. Besides, I’ve not seen that much mic-stand contortionism since Julian Cope put his head back in the clouds and opened his mouth. Revealing a rockabilly quiff that gradually sags and grips his forehead like a giant spider and a natty line in militaria, Endicott croons as the bastard offspring of Alvin Stardust and Morrissey fronting a wholly listenable Sigue Sigue Sputnik, no less. It’s glam-influenced power pop and by all accounts it shouldn’t work. But it does. The rest of the band are similarly attired and join in with Billy Idol sneers, glam-rock posturing and guitars as low as the floor. Unsurprisingly it’s the three tracks from the EP that go down with most approval. The new single, ‘Honest Mistake’, is thrown in there somewhere but they neglect to mention it, and while nothing from the unreleased material really stands out, their bravado, confidence and eyeliner carry the whole gig. Now that’s entertainment.
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